The story is a comically inverted version of the classic Three Little Pigs, a traditional fable published in the 19th century.

Oxenbury was highly commended runner-up for the annual Kate Greenaway Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book illustration by a British subject.

[citation needed] Publishers Weekly concluded its review: "Trivizas laces the text with funny, clever touches, from an ensemble of animals who obligingly donate whatever building materials the wolves require, to the wolves' penultimate, armor-plated residence replete with a "video entrance phone" over which the pig can relay his formulaic threats.

Oxenbury's watercolors capture the story's broad humor and add a wealth of supplementary details, with exquisite renderings of the wolves' comic temerity and the pig's bellicose stances.

[4] The story features three anthropomorphic wolves who build four houses using different types of materials: bricks, concrete, steel, and flowers.